Love Song
by CateWicked
Summary: Bella and Edward meet as contestants on an Idol/X Factor like show. Obviously talented, the two face off and are forced to face the consequence of the public's vote, and the later fame that comes with their success. The road to true love never did run smooth. AH AU OOC. Rating may change later. Regular updates. Bella & Edward POV.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N at bottom. Thanks for reading!**

**Love Song**

**Chapter 1 - Bella POV**

"It's on, it's on!" I heard Rose scream. Jasper chuckled throatily, following her through to the living room as the familiar theme tune filled the house.

"Are you coming, Bella?" he asked. I shook my head. I wasn't ready. Not yet.

"I'll be through soon."

"Don't miss it," he smiled.

I refreshed my youtube page. My own face stared back at me from my laptop; a guitar in hand and my mouth frozen open mid-song. If things went well tonight my page would soon be inundated with comments from people critiquing my music. Honestly, if things went badly tonight the same thing would still happen.

"Bella!" Rose demanded.

I didn't want to watch. I might only appear for a few seconds, or not at all. I almost didn't want to see myself up on the TV screen, singing for the audience with the judges looking on. Obviously I knew the result, so the suspense wasn't the same for me as for those watching at home, but it's never nice watching yourself on screen.

"Don't make me come in there and get you," Rose called again.

"Come on, sugar," Jasper added. "No use putting off the inevitable."

I could hear the first singers starting up, the mandatory invasive questioning from the judges as they probed for a sob story they already knew they had. I'd refused to give any sob story on my application form. If I was going to get anywhere it was going to be because I could sing.

"Bella!"

I hadn't even wanted to audition. The show only accepts soloists and vocal groups, whereas I've been in a band with Rosalie and Jasper since we were little. If they couldn't come with me then I didn't want to go. I hadn't even thought of auditioning until an email arrived with the link copied in close to a hundred times. Rosalie and Jasper both denied any involvement, but said I should do it anyway. I never found out who sent the email, but they managed to coerce me into auditioning. Jasper said it would be good for the band. Any publicity is good publicity.

I have news for you: auditioning is not like what they show on TV. You wait twelve hours to be shuttled into a holding room with a hundred other contestants at a time. Slowly you're called off the audition for a producer, with only the talented, beautiful, and crazy going through.

Twelve hours had never passed by so slowly, the wait only alleviated by the friendships I made in the crowd. Well, friendship: singular. I was next to a guy a few years younger than me. His name was Jacob and he was the lead singer of a boy band. Not a boy band in the One Direction style, but more a band that is stocked with male singers. He said Mumford and Sons was more his style, but he had the clean cut looks that could have pegged him for boy band pop. Twelve hours is a long wait, and he was one of the few things that kept me sane.

Finally called to a booth I was relieved to be able to move again. My legs were not so thrilled. After sitting still for so long I felt unsteady, and careened into a guy in front of me. Annoyed with myself more than anything, this swiftly turned to red-hot embarrassment when the guy stooped down to help me up. He barely looked at me, doing nothing more than was polite, but he clearly possessed striking good looks. I can't help but become embarrassed around good-looking people.

If you get a call back you go through to the live shows. Pretty boy got a call back and didn't look surprised. I immediately categorised him as going through in the 'beautiful' category, rather than talented, because it would be too unfair for him to have both looks and talent. Plus, I was jealous and it was easier to dismiss him that way.

Don't get me wrong, I did get a call back, but I'm not super model beautiful, so that left me with the crazy or the talented category. Jasper maintains I'm in the talented category, but he's my cousin: he has to say that.

The next round of auditions is different. Rosalie and Jasper came with me for them and watched me when I went up onstage. I was sad not to have Charlie with me, but my dad has to work. There are only about twenty acts per day in front of the judges, and yet the wait feels just as long. Jacob was there with his band, plus their friends and family: it was a large group and I felt a little overshadowed, as if my two friends weren't good enough. The only other person with so few companions was pretty boy – he had a small pixie-like girl with him, and a hulking bodyguard-type figure. I smirked, imagining Pretty Boy was so into himself he already thought he needed protection before the fame hit. Maybe he was genuinely that irritating. Attractive people have a tendency to be irritating.

"Isabella Marie Swan!" Rosalie's tone was no nonsense now, and I sucked in a ragged breath, saying goodbye to my youtube page before heading through to the living room.

A joke act was on. I cringed to see the hope in their eyes.

"Relax," Jasper murmured, sitting me down on the floor and sitting on the couch behind me. I leant back against him and he rubbed my shoulders gently. He'd always been great at de-stressing me.

"You have nothing to worry about," Rose chimed in. "You have more talent in your little finger than most of these idiots."

An ad break had me offering to fetch drinks, but Jasper's grip tightened on my shoulders, keeping me in place. They both knew if they gave me an excuse to run away now I probably wouldn't return.

"This is it!" Rose crowed as the show started up again.

I covered my face with a pillow. She made a quick attempt to pull it away, giving up and instructing Jasper to make sure I at least listened to my performance. I heard my awkward answers stammered back to the judges and cringed deep inside. I was pretty certain my internal organs had never been so small. Involuntarily, I squealed in mortification when the music started up and I heard myself begin to play my guitar. I really wished I was holding it right then: I wanted the comfortable feel of it beneath my hands, grounding me and keeping me calm.

I had agonised over what to sing. I'd flicked between girly pop and indie. Eventually Rosalie had decided for me, stating a cover of Paramore's 'The Only Exception' was one of the few songs I could manage acoustically without further practise. I'd bristled at the comment – she always digs at my talent – and followed her judgement when Jasper hadn't objected. And now I was up on screen, sounding nothing like the original, and probably upsetting thousands of Paramore fans.

"You were brilliant," Jasper whispers, and I realise it's over. My brief spot has gone and now there's another hopeful up on screen. "And you're going to be brilliant on the live shows too."

After that I was finally able to watch the show, sizing up my competition. I still didn't know for sure if I was through to the live shows. They buzzed a certain number of contestants through before making their final selections by re-watching our old performances. I really wanted to make it to the live shows now, as much as I'd been against auditioning in the first place. It was a matter of pride.

The end of the show was rapidly approaching when I saw Pretty Boy again. I felt my stomach knot in anticipation; spitefully hoping someone so preternaturally good-looking would fall flat on their face. I should have known better. There was a reason they were showing him last. The last performance of the show was reserved for the crazies and the spectacular – never the mediocre – and Pretty Boy was definitely not crazy.

I heard Rosalie curse softly. "He is seriously talented."

"Yeah," Jasper said. "Why have we not come across him on youtube?"

"Not everyone has a youtube account, Jasper," I said.

"This is the 21st Century, Bella," he scoffed. "Anyone who wants to be somebody has a youtube account."

"Well search for him," Rosalie said. "Edward Cullen. See if anything comes up."

Jasper opened up his laptop and began to search. I knew if he found anything I'd probably stay up all night analysing it and looking for flaws – anything to prove this boy was a mere mortal like the rest of us, but there was nothing.

"He might be missing from the internet," Jasper said, "But you, Bella, certainly are not." He turned his laptop to face me. My youtube page was raccheting up views, new comments piling in.

Rose gasped beside me. "What are they saying?"

"Mostly positive," Jasper said, scanning through it all. "A lot of surprise Bella's in a band. Some say they like her better as a soloist."

Rose harrumphed and I rubbed her arm. "What do they know? If I get on the show it's just one more step in the right direction. It'll get us out there. I wouldn't leave you guys."

"We know," Jasper smiled. "Don't worry about it: we want this for you."

The phone rang then, Charlie calling to congratulate me on my performance. I blushed, wishing I could hug him.

"That Cullen kid," he said suddenly. "He was real good."

"Dad," I whined down the phone. "Don't remind me."

"Alice must've been real proud." I frowned at the odd statement, remembering Alice had been introduced as the pixie-like girl backstage. It seemed a strange piece of information for my dad to have picked up.

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged, not quite sure what to do with that statement. We exchanged a few more banalities before he rang off, finishing by saying "I'm proud of you, kiddo."

We re-watched the show half a dozen more times that night, and each time I became a little less reluctant to watch myself on screen. Eventually I was willing to put down the pillow.

When I went to bed that night I was convinced I recognised Cullen's face. It seemed to smile at me from my dreams.

{EB}

**Hello! Thank you to anyone who reads this!**

**I've already plotted out the entire story, so expect regular updates from me. Sorry for the slow start - it picks up soon. I promise!**

**Reviews would be lovely (but not as lovely as Edward. Close though.).**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Edward POV**

There she was alright. Right up there on the screen. So close I could touch. Except obviously I'd be touching the glass of my TV, but at least I could pretend she was close enough to touch.

"They think you're hot, Edward," Emmett said, glued to my laptop screen, watching the reactions roll in.

"That's because I am."

Alice hit me but didn't deny it. I am hot. It's an incontrovertible fact, like the Earth moving around the Sun.

"You are so full of yourself," she said instead.

"No point denying the obvious." I turned back to the screen as my precocious sibling huffed.

"Want me to rewind it again?" Emmett asked. I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"No. I'm fine."

He rewound it anyway, knowing it was what I really wanted. "She's possibly hotter than you," he said, watching Bella walk out on stage once more.

"Impossible," I replied, but the words felt false in my mouth. Bella was stunning. If I were the poetic type I'd pun on her name, something about how she'd transformed from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. It would have been pointless though: she had always been beautiful to me.

"Whatever, Edward. You know that's a lie." Bella started singing again, and we all fell silent. She had that type of understated beauty that all too often is passed over for something more extravagant. She was clean-cut in style, but there was rawness to her voice that belied her image. I'd watched her youtube videos countless times, but there was a new energy to her now as she performed in front of a live audience.

"There's no way you two won't make the live shows," Alice began as her song finished and she left the stage to the cheers of the crowd. "You'll have to say something to her." She waited for a response but I wouldn't give her one, focusing my attention on the next act instead. "If you don't say something to her then I will."

"Keep out of it, Alice."

"What? We used to be friends? It would be weird if I didn't say anything."

"She won't remember us," I said curtly, curling my hands into fists and trying to remain patient with my sister. She never picked up on any of the clues I gave her when I wanted to be left alone. Emmett did, but he was too busy googling my name.

"How do you know? We remember her."

"Because I ran into her at the auditions."

"You what?" Alice was up on her feet now. "What happened? What did you say?"

"Nothing," I snapped. "She didn't notice me until she walked into me."

"And then what?"

"And then nothing. I helped her up and she walked off."

"What?" Clearly Alice's vocabulary was shrinking if all she could say was 'what'. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because she doesn't remember us, Alice."

"It's been over a decade. If you reminded her –"

A heavy hand clamped down on Alice's waist and Emmett drew my sister onto the couch. "I think you should leave it, Alice."

"I don't understand," she said, looking around in confusion. "We grew up together. We were best friends."

"_You_ were best friends," I reminded her.

"Eddie was just the older brother with a crush."

"So? She didn't know about it, and it's all in the past now. Who cares about crushes from when we were kids?"

Emmett raised an eyebrow. "Don't be dense, Alice. He's clearly still burning a torch for her." He nodded at me slightly. We'd never spoken about it, but he'd always known. There were only so many times he could walk in at 2am to find me lurking on her youtube page before he got suspicious.

Alice looked at me blankly. "Edward?"

I didn't want to talk about it. No matter how you phrase it, there's something weird about crushing on a girl you knew when she was ten.

The high-pitched squeal told me that Alice was not reacting to the news as expected. "That's fantastic," she shrieked, leaping forward and clasping her arms around me. "And so romantic."

"Not really," Emmett muttered. "Try creepy, instead."

I threw my playstation controller at him, but he swatted it like a fly.

"We'll have to clean you up," Alice continued, pulling and pinching all over. "I've been dying to get you out of these ratty clothes for months. And your hair . . ."

This was enough to make Emmett put down the laptop and focus. "You can't touch him, Alice. The girls love him. The odd tattoo, the unkempt hair: that's part of his image now."

Alice scowled at the mention of my tattoos. I knew she'd like to claw them off with her bare hands if I gave her the chance.

"Hear that, Alice?" I asked as I scooted from her reach. "You can't touch me. Emmett says so."

She stuck her tongue out. "He can't protect you all the time."

"He can protect me a lot of the time. And if I end up famous he can be my bodyguard. So there." I resisted sticking my tongue out in return.

"Thanks for the offer, but I have greater ambitions in life than tailing your ass all day."

"I happen to know I have a very fine ass. You could do worse."

He rolled his eyes and returned to the laptop. "Fine ass aside, I think you need to stop hiding. You've uploaded so many videos but what's the point: they're all private. You need to develop a following now, and you'll be able to generate a buzz through youtube."

"I know," I grumbled.

"Then can I start making your videos public?" I sighed heavily in response. "Come on, Eddie. I don't know why you're fighting this. It was your choice to audition. You knew what that entailed."

"It was her choice and you damn well know it," I said, motioning towards Alice. "I wouldn't usually touch this show with a barge pole."

Alice smiled sweetly. "I'm always right, Edward. I said good things would happen if you auditioned. Everyone thinks you're hot – "

"Nothing new there, then."

"And we've found Bella."

"Just make the account public," I said to Emmett. Sometimes ignoring Alice was the only way.

"Already done," Emmett smiled. "I figured it was better to do now and ask for forgiveness later."

I could feel the tension building in my shoulders. Emmett had been my best friend for years, but he had a tendency to act before thinking. "You're lucky I agreed."

"Not really. I knew you would."

Alice was already at his side, looking to see if anyone had found the account yet and insisting we advertised it on facebook and twitter.

"I'm going to bed," I announced.

Alice was too absorbed to even comment on how early it was or beg me to stay. Emmett motioned for me to escape while my little sister was distracted.

{EB}

In the safety of my room I stretched out on my bed and let myself think of Bella. I hadn't thought she'd audition. I'd hoped, but hope makes fools of us all. I'd seen her almost accidentally at auditions, chatting away to some kid who didn't even look legal yet. It was strange to see her in the flesh again after so long. The little girl in pigtails was nowhere to be seen, replaced instead by a confident young woman with a guitar in hand. She hadn't once looked my way, though I found a bunch of reasons to walk past her. Called to sing, I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts I hadn't realised exactly who'd walked into me. I'm surprised I didn't call out her name and tell her I was a fan. I managed to rein it in, but she was off before I could say a word. I think. Sometimes I remember it differently, as if I were the one who'd turned away too quickly. Either way, she hadn't remembered me.

I'd always been vaguely mad at Alice for losing touch with Bella, but I could hardly blame her: they were ten years old when we moved, and kids didn't have cell phones back then. It was only idle curiosity that led me to google her one day. I'd been hooked since then.

Performances with her band were good, but the videos I looked forward to the most were the ones of her singing in her room. I would pretend she was in the room and singing to me until I realised how odd that was. So many years had passed. The twelve year old who'd crushed on his little sister's best friend was long gone, and so was she. She was the echo of a girl I'd once liked, and now she was a stranger.

She shouldn't have meant anything to me, but she did.

{EB}

**Again, sorry for the slow start, guys. We'll get to the shows soon and Edward and Bella will meet again!**

**Any reviews would be so great. Free internet cookies for all! **


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